Saint Christopher

This small-format picture shows the Christian legend of the
pagan of gigantic stature who was converted after he carried the
infant Christ across a ford. Elsheimer, who spent most of his
creative life in Italy, made light the most important visual
element in the picture, both that real light which flows from the
moon, and the mystical light which comes from the infant Christ.
Small nuances of lighting, through which man and nature seem to
blend into a unified whole, give this night scene a sense of
mystery and animation. The sculptural working up of the figures
recalls somewhat the style of Tintoretto, but the composition was
undoubtedly the idea of Elsheimer himself. Rubens copied the head
of the Christ Child, and Elsheimer's influence reached a number of
major artists from other schools, among them Rembrandt, Nicolas
Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Domenico Fetti and Pieter Lastman.

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